Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it: nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.

Patience and time do more than strength or passion.

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.

Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.

Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.

Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him.

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.

All the brains in the world are powerless against the sort of stupidity that is in fashion.

Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.

Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance.

You have to relax, write what you write. It sounds easy but it's really, really hard. One of the things it took me longest to learn was to trust the writing process.

I'm still a geek on the inside, that's the important thing.

From Paul to Stalin, the popes who have chosen Caesar have prepared the way for Caesars who quickly learn to despise popes.

The most successful families embrace and elevate their family history, particularly their failures, setbacks and other missteps.

In every thriller written about Washington, particularly after 9/11, there are good guys and there are bad guys, and there's no gray area at all.

As a young man... you don't know anything about yourself. And add on to that, you're on the cover of magazines. People are interviewing you about what you think. You feel like a real phony.

I have an overactive brain, and as a result of that, I can really get in my own mind. So I like to try and exercise it to the point of exhaustion.

I think we'll see a leveling off and then a contraction of population, not a continued upward trend.

Leave the past in the past, tomorrows not promised and Todays just a gift i guess thats why its the present

Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws.